Never Letting Go

Sleeping Beauty...?

I wake up to find a patch on my back has been sunburnt from where my shirt rode up and revealed my pale skin to the unforgiving sun.

“Damn.” I mutter under my breath. I get up and walk to the house, Kyle must have left earlier.

I walk into the kitchen to see Lachie smiling at me, failing at holding back a laugh. “What’s happened to your hair!” suddenly Lachie erupts into the laughter and it echoes throughout the house, Tess walks in rubbing her eyes and then gasps when she sees my hair. “Hun, what did you do? Sleep outside on the rocks?” She comments sarcastically. I bite my lip and look down. “Yes…” Tess laughs. “Come on Darci; let’s get a hair brush through that mess.”

Tess gently leads me into her room and stands behind me; running the hair brush softly through my hair. The first few minutes are spent in silence and then Tess breaks the ice. “How are you coping? I know you’re ok during the day but I heard you last night and it doesn’t sound good.”

I frown, I didn’t realise I woke the whole house. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake the whole house. It’s getting better; it’s only once or twice a night now.” I take a deep breath and wait for a reply but she just keeps stroking my hair with the brush. I like this comfortable silence; I don’t really get this with many people. Maybe it’s where Kyle gets it from.

I closed my eyes and without me noticing, Tess got creative. I open my eyes fifteen minutes later to see my hair in a messy up do with loose pieces of hair framing my face in the most beautiful way, now it’s my turn to gasp.

“Wow… my hair looks amazing!” I state the obvious and Tess stands back and admires her work.

“I always knew I was meant to have a daughter.”

I get up and leave the room and walk straight into Kyle and his jaw hits the floor. “I know right, your mum is amazing.”

“You’re having your hair like that for your sixteenth, it could be a fancy dress party!” he replies excitedly.

I frown at him. “You can’t wear heels on a bouncy castle and we are not getting rid of it.”

Blake walks past with food stuffed in his mouth. “Go bare footh…” he spits. I jump excitedly now; Blake can be a genius sometimes. I’m having a bare foot fancy dress sixteenth with a bouncy castle! Best sixteenth ever!

Kyle frowns a bit when he realises my idea but I give him a puppy dog look and he gives in, “fine, I guess it’s your sixteenth after all.”

Pictures Of You by The Last Goodnight starts to play on the radio and I grab Kyle’s hand, “dance with me, I know you know how to so don’t try to lie to me.” He smiles sheepishly; I knew he was going to lie to get out of it. Kyle take my hand in his and places his other hand on the small of my back, I place my other hand on his shoulder.

Our feet shuffle in beat with the music and our hips sway in time to. Kyle goes to spin me around when I trip over his foot luckily he catches me before I hit the floor, I laugh casually while attempting to make my fall into a joke. I notice a flash of emotion that I’ve never seen in his eyes before, what was it? What is he hiding from me?

Kyle pulls me up quickly and laughs awkwardly as well. We finish our dancing before the next song starts and we both separate into different rooms, I flee to the bathroom and see my hair has fallen out of place so I tug out the bobby pins holding the rest of my hair in place.

“What did I see in his eyes? There was something right? I’m sure there was.” I stand staring at the mirror, “Maybe he’s sick of me hanging around all the time.” I mutter to myself.

 I pull my hair into a loose bun and walk down to the river and climb into one of the trees and look at the swirling green water.

There’s something magical about this place and I’m not talking about fairies and unicorns, it’s more like somehow my life falls into place and it’s perfect for that moment in time, like my atheist parents coming to support me getting baptised.

I move out to the branch hanging low over the water, I lightly touch the surface of the water watching it ripple out into multiple circles.